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So I am now finally selling my Freeagent External HDD to fund a larger internal HDD. I formatted it once to get rid of all the ISOs and movies I kept on it then used Eraser to clean up the unused space to try and get rid of the trace (that is how it works right?). But I decided to choose the option that cleans it over once as opposed to the one where it cleans it over 35 times. Is that still enough or is there programs that can still pull out the data? Keep in mind that I'm putting it on ebay so chances are the buyer isn't a super L33T HAXXOR but it can't hurt to think about these things.

So I am now finally selling my Freeagent External HDD to fund a larger internal HDD. I formatted it once to get rid of all the ISOs and movies I kept on it then used Eraser to clean up the unused space to try and get rid of the trace (that is how it works right?). But I decided to choose the option that cleans it over once as opposed to the one where it cleans it over 35 times. Is that still enough or is there programs that can still pull out the data? Keep in mind that I'm putting it on ebay so chances are the buyer isn't a super L33T HAXXOR but it can't hurt to think about these things.

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Don't just format, delete the entire partition on the hard drive and recreate it, that guarantees you everything is erased, even the page file.

So I am now finally selling my Freeagent External HDD to fund a larger internal HDD. I formatted it once to get rid of all the ISOs and movies I kept on it then used Eraser to clean up the unused space to try and get rid of the trace (that is how it works right?). But I decided to choose the option that cleans it over once as opposed to the one where it cleans it over 35 times. Is that still enough or is there programs that can still pull out the data? Keep in mind that I'm putting it on ebay so chances are the buyer isn't a super L33T HAXXOR but it can't hurt to think about these things.

Click to expand...

Don't just format, delete the entire partition on the hard drive and recreate it, that guarantees you everything is erased, even the page file.

Click to expand...

I don't think that work Narin...
I still able to recover delete partition and file's (I did this before)

I don't think that work Narin...
I still able to recover delete partition and file's (I did this before)
I'll have to second the comment by lookout. Merely deleting the partition will not get rid of the data.

QUOTE(The Last Spartan @ May 15 2008, 04:06 AM) DBAN Never actually used but you may want to give it a shot

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I can vouch for DBAN as I use it every time I trash/sell/get rid of a hard drive or if someone I know wants to get rid of...uh...questionable data .

It does offer three modes of destruction: the single pass, the 7-pass algorithm and the ultra-paranoid Gutmann (35-pass) algorithm. The single pass destruction is good enough for most people, but if you really want to play it safe, 7-pass destruction is apparently safe enough for the Department of Defense.

The Gutmann destruction method will take several days to complete, maybe weeks depending on the size of your drive. I wouldn't recommend it unless you had something like child porn on your hard drive and you were selling the hard drive to someone who works for the FBI

I use this to format when I want everything GONE. It comes with DBAN (Darik's Boot and Nuke), as well as other HD wiping tools. I can't remember the last one I used, but it had DOD standards and more... I did a full 18 pass wipe... took a lil over a day on an 80 gig laptop drive. 9 wipes of 1's and 9 wipes of 0's... everything was GONE! Only way to get data back from that is use an electron microscope to see the way the magnetic particles were aligned before the wipe!

Also you do know, that in a US if you are taken to court over piracy and such and wipe out your hard drive before they get a chance to make a copy of it/review it, that in most cases, they throw the book at you and fine you the maximum fine they can give you. Basically its tampering and destroying edvidence to them that could be used by the opposing team to make a case against you.

They have to prove you wiped your HD before you knew you were being sued... as soon as you get the letter, wipe your drive CLEAN, load your OS, and the programs you use, minus the P2P and all that, and they can't prove a thing!

take a look at killdisk (www.killdisk.com). what it does is write and format your disk multiple of times to minimize the 'risk' of data recovery... I strongly recommend this program or something similar, formatting is not enuff.

take a look at killdisk (www.killdisk.com). what it does is write and format your disk multiple of times to minimize the 'risk' of data recovery... I strongly recommend this program or something similar, formatting is not enuff.

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That sounds no different than the Eraser program. Also, I tried Dban but it only recognises my internal HDD and not my external HDD.

I was giving seriously consideratin to wanting to use the Guttman 35 pass deletion method but in the end I ended up using the single pass. Don't tell me that's still not enough is it?

The most important point when deleting data from a HD is to write to it with random data --> Formatting / writing to it with all zero's is less effective then puttin in random data. There should be several tools. Also 1 pass generally isn't enough. If there is ANYTHING on there of any value, I would go the safe way and use a random writing tool and let it do a few passes. Especially seeing as you are selling it to a stranger.

The most important point when deleting data from a HD is to write to it with random data --> Formatting / writing to it with all zero's is less effective then puttin in random data. There should be several tools. Also 1 pass generally isn't enough. If there is ANYTHING on there of any value, I would go the safe way and use a random writing tool and let it do a few passes. Especially seeing as you are selling it to a stranger.

Click to expand...

When I ran the Eraser program, I used the Pseudorandom Data option to wipe the unused space and it was a 1 pass. Still not enough?

take a look at killdisk (www.killdisk.com). what it does is write and format your disk multiple of times to minimize the 'risk' of data recovery... I strongly recommend this program or something similar, formatting is not enuff.

Click to expand...

+1

We'd use this in my old company when trashing disks/cleaning them. It works well!

There are many recovery programs out there, such as Getbackdata, and some other Acronis program that can 'undelete' your hard drives, but the more passes you make (formatting/rewriting) the more chance the old data will be unrecoverable.

A way to check if you removed your data enough is simply by trying to recover the data. Been ages since I've tried that so not a clue what programs are out there, but do a good google on data recovery and you should be able to find some stuff .

The best way to get rid of incriminating data on a hard drive is to take an powerful electromagnet and run it over the hard drive platter. Or just incinerate the hard drive, but you'd get fined for emission of toxic chemicals.

The best way to get rid of incriminating data on a hard drive is to take an powerful electromagnet and run it over the hard drive platter. Or just incinerate the hard drive, but you'd get fined for emission of toxic chemicals.

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